Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

"The funny thing about writing is that whether you are doing it well or you do it poorly, it looks the exact same. That is actually one of the many ways that writing is different from ballet dancing." ~ John Green

John Green Source: Wikipedia

John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, vlogger, writer, producer, actor and editor. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, and his sixth novel, The Fault in Our Stars, debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list in January 2012.The 2014 film adaptation opened at number one at the box office. In 2014, Green was included in Time magazine's list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World. Another film based on a Green novel, Paper Towns, was released on July 24, 2015.


This week on Writing from the Peak:


August 21     Non-conference Events: Who Are We?  Linda Tschappat


August 23      Prez Says by Bowen Gillings


August 25      Sweet Success Celebrates Michelle Major 

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“A writer is a world trapped in a person.” ~ Victor Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo, (February 26, 1802-1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. Hugo is considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers.

Source: Britannica

This week on Writing from the Peak:

Aug 7            Letter from the Editor   Donnell Ann Bell

Aug 9            PPW Historical blog    Jason Evans

Aug 11          Sweet Success celebrates R.T. Lawton

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.” ~ Lloyd Alexander

Lloyd Alexander Source: Wikipedia

Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 – May 17, 2007) was an American author of more than forty books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.

This Week on Writing from the Peak:

July 31        Improve your writing through Improv     By: Deb Courtney

Aug 2          The Writing Coach Deb McLeod

Aug 4          Pikes Peak Writers Monthly Events

                                                    

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” ~ Richard Bach

Richard Bach: Source Wikipedia

Richard David Bach, June 23, 1936, is an American writer. Bach is widely known as the author of some hugely popular 1970s best-sellers, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.     

     

This Week on Writing from the Peak

July 24              Talking Shorts  Review of PPWC Short Story Panel    Shannon Lawrence

July 26              Business of Writing: The Importance of Backstory       Linda Rohrbough

July 28              Sweet Success

Quote of the Day and the Week to Come

“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least 4 questions, thus:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I have put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

~ George Orwell

Source: Wikipedia and Inspirational Quotes

George Orwell, born as Eric Arthur Blair, (June 23, 1903-January 21, 1950), was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. Orwell is best known for his dystopian novel "1984," published in 1949 and the allegorical novella, Animal Farm in 1945.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

July 3 Letter from the Editor ~ Donnell Ann Bell

July 5 The Writing Coach – Deb McLeod

July 7 Pikes Peak Writers July Events

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“I think new writers are too worried that it has all been said before. Sure it has, but not by you.” ~Asha Dornfest

Source: Google & Pinterest Quotes

Asha Dornfest is a writer, parent, and insistent optimist living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of PARENT HACKS, co-author of MINIMALIST PARENTING, and co-host of the Edit Your Life podcast. 

This week on Writing from the Peak

June 19        Scholarship Recipient Mason J. Torall

June 21        One Day with Donald Maass/2017 PPWC by Catherine Dilts

June 23        Sweet Success Celebrates Barbara Nickless

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“And, what do you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.” ~ Ray Bradbury

Source Wikipedia

Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction.

Widely known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and his science fiction and horror story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and I Sing the Body Electric (1969), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American writers. While most of his best-known work is in speculative fiction, he also wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine (1957) or the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992).

Recipient of numerous awards, including a 2007 Pulitzer Citation, Bradbury also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted to comic book, television and film formats.

On his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream."

This week on Writing from the Peak:

June 12        Scholarship Recipient Beth Malone

June 14        PPW's History Series by Jason Evans

June 16        Sweet Success Celebrates Barbara Nickless

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper English gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.” ~ Elmore Leonard

Source: Wikipedia

Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.

Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Swag, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (adapted for the movie Jackie Brown). Leonard's writings include short stories that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, as well as the FX television series Justified.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

June 5          Letter from the Editor – Donnell Ann Bell

June 7          The Writing Coach Deb McLeod

June 9          Sweet Success Celebrates JL Fields

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.”  ~ E. L. Doctorow

Source: Wikipedia

Edgar Lawrence "E. L." Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known internationally for his works of historical fiction. He has been described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century.

He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included the award-winning novels Ragtime (1975), Billy Bathgate (1989), and The March (2005). These, like many of his other works, placed fictional characters in recognizable historical contexts, with known historical figures, and often used different narrative styles. His stories were recognized for their originality and versatility, and Doctorow was praised for his audacity and imagination.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

May 29         PPWC's Scholarship Report by AmyBeth Inverness

May 31         The Traveling Writer by Jennifer Lovett Herbranson

June 2             Pikes Peak Writers free June Events

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only se as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." ~ E. L. Doctorow

E. L. Doctorow

Edgar Lawrence "E. L." Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known internationally for his works of historical fiction. He has been described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century.

He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included the award-winning novels Ragtime (1975), Billy Bathgate (1989), and The March (2005). These, like many of his other works, placed fictional characters in recognizable historical contexts, with known historical figures, and often used different narrative styles. His stories were recognized for their originality and versatility, and Doctorow was praised for his audacity and imagination.

This week on Writing from the Peak:


May 22     Darby Karchut's Synopsis of the 2017 Pikes Peak Writer's Conference


May 24     Author Intrusion -- Am I Doing it?  Donnell Ann Bell


May 26     Sweet Success Celebrates Chris Goff

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done." ~ Stephen Wright

Source: Wikipedia

Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and an Oscar-winning film producer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical, and sometimes nonsense jokes, paraprosdokians, non sequiturs, anti-humor, and one-liners with contrived situations.

Wright was ranked as the twenty-third greatest comedian by Comedy Central in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics. He was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his 1988 short film The Appointments of Dennis Jennings.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

May 15         The Price of Confidence by Natalia Brothers

May 17         PPW’s Writing History by Jason Evans

May 19         Pikes Peak Writers Celebrates Cynthia Kuhn

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

 "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Source: Wikipedia

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 (January 6, 1705 – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

May 8           Meet the Member Patrick Hester by Kathie Scrimgeour

May 10         A Message from PPW's Incoming President, Bowen Gillings

May 12         Sweet Success Celebrates Margaret Mizushima

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

"There are three rules for writing a novel . . .

1.

2.

3.

Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Source: Wikipedia

William Somerset Maugham Jan 25, 1874 through Dec. 16, 1965 was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.


During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he traveled in India and Southeast Asia; these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.


This week on Writing from the Peak:



May 1           Letter from the Editor Donnell Ann Bell



May 3           The Writing Coach Deb McLeod



May 5           Pikes Peak Writers May Events

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. ~ Herman Melville

Source Wikipedia

Herman Melville (Aug. 1, 1819 – Sept. 28, 1891) was born in New York. He was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851). His work was almost forgotten during his last thirty years. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. He developed a complex, baroque style: the vocabulary is rich and original, a strong sense of rhythm infuses the elaborate sentences, the imagery is often mystical or ironic, and the abundance of allusion extends to Scripture, myth, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

April 24  Adventures in Beta Reading by Shannon Lawrence

April 26  Let’s Talk about your AUDIO Book by KL Cooper

April 28  Sweet Success Celebrates Barbara Nickless

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“Know your literary tradition, savor it, steal from it, but when you sit down to write, forget about worshiping greatness and fetishizing masterpieces.”  ~ Allegra Goodman

Source: Wikipedia & Writer's Digest

Allegra Goodman, born in 1967, is an American author based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her most recent novel, The Cookbook Collector, was published in 2010. Goodman wrote and illustrated her first novel at the age of seven.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

April 17:  So, How Did You Get Your Book Published? by Margo Catts

April 19:  Improve Your Writing: Critique Someone Else’s by Bowen Gillings

April 21: Sweet Success Celebrates Catherine Dilts

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” ~ Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Source: Wikipedia

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television shows, and comic books. King has published 54 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and six non-fiction books. He has written nearly 200 short stories, most of which have been collected in book collections. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine. His novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was the basis for the movie The Shawshank Redemption which is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

April 10         Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member Barbara Nickless

April 12        Writing your Story, Blog Four by Jason Evans

April 14         Gregg Taylor Interview by Laura Hayden

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“Let others determine your worth and you’re already lost, because no one wants people worth more than themselves” – Peter V. Brett

Peter V. Breck Source: Wikipedia

Peter V. Brett (born February 8, 1973) is an American fantasy novelist. He is the author of the Demon Cycle, whose first volume was published in the UK by HarperCollins's Voyager imprint in 2008 as The Painted Man and in the US by Del Rey Books as The Warded Man.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

April 3           Letter from the Editor – Donnell Ann Bell

April 5           The Writing Coach – Deb McLeod

April 7           Pikes Peak Writers April Events

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.” ~  F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source: Wikipedia and Google

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (Sep 24, 1896 – Dec 21, 1940), known professionally as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist and short story writer, whose works illustrate the Jazz Age. While he achieved limited success in his lifetime, he is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote numerous short stories, many of which treat themes of youth and promise, and age and despair.

This Week on Writing from the Peak:

March 27      Finding Your Tribe No Matter Where You Live by Jennifer Lovett Herbranson

March 29      Flashbacks: Do’s and Don’ts by Karen Albright Lin

March 31      Sweet Success Celebrates Karen Fox